Chương 38

Alex picked up the bracers, which felt quite cold to the touch; they were steel in an ice-rift. Binding the bracers involved injecting them with mana, which was how Alex realized. A few seconds later he'd successfully managed it. He strapped a bracer to his non-dominant arm.

"That thing takes really well to mana," said Beckett; he looked curious.

"Yeah," said Alex.

"I feel like—" He turned his wrist over, and Force-blue mana washed over the bracer's surface.

"Sheesh."

"Yeah." Alex grinned a little.

"It's mana conductive. I'm literally just channeling in mana right now, and the bracer's accepting it." Usually, you had to be pretty intentional with Force mana, and you could only apply so much of it to any given item. But Alex injected a little more Force mana into the bracer, and was pretty certain he was a ways from its maximum capacity.

"I wish my sword was made of this," said Alex idly, turning it over.

"Supposedly, specialized spellsword swords can act kind of like staffs, or wands—like, they'd help you with spell casting." Also significantly more expensive than his longsword.

"So those ingots earlier," said Beckett, and Alex saw the mana of the bracer reflecting in his eyes as he realized.

"Yep," said Alex. A pause.

"You could probably make two or three bracers out of all that steel," said Beckett; he seemed optimistic.

"Maybe we were lucky."

"You realize you're set either way," said Alex, amused.

"Yeah, but it's still fun getting lucky with gear. It's kind of like a lootbox, right? It's random, like you could get a Skill shard."

"I don't think you could get anything," Alex allowed.

"But yeah, I think it's similar. It's all placed in when the rift's created." With Skill Shard prices, his assumption was it'd be pretty unlikely to see one in a standard chest, especially in a 2-star rift. As Alex played with the Force mana—"I'm actually surprised you're not in more mana-conductive gear," he said.

"Like your spear. It's a high quality spear, but it's not—y'know."

"This is all just starter gear Echelon gave me," said Beckett, looking slightly embarrassed; Alex wasn't sure what there was to be embarrassed about.

"I think we're getting more like, specialized gear when the training season gets going. I'm actually—why don't they make more gear out of this kind of steel? Is it just because it's rare?"

"It's probably partially rarity," speculated Alex.

"But I imagine it's also because it probably sacrifices in some ways, compared to less conductive steels? Like, if you were a pure warrior and you could get steel of the same rarity, just a really durable steel's probably fine." A few seconds passed.

"If you want one, ask," said Alex, amused.

"I didn't—I'm fine," Beckett protested.

"Wait, are you serious?" Alex was already giving the guy a bracer, since it felt pretty clear the curiosity in Beckett's eyes was related to his lightning mana. Working with a highly conductive bracer was probably excellent practice for chaining.

"I can't take this," said Beckett instantly.

"Trade me your other bracer," said Alex.

"It's probably sturdier anyway."

"I mean, I also literally can't," said Beckett, with a weak smile. At which point Alex discovered you couldn't only bind a single bracer, since the two seemed to count as an item. Which was how it was decided Alex would wield the bracers as they went forward, bracers he started to slick with Force mana. He already had a few ideas for the item. He imagined it'd be pretty easy to create Pure constructs on them for extra protection.

But one idea felt most convincing—these things felt like they were almost begging to be used in a specific way. He was also still practicing his Pure cycling—he didn't neglect his Pure work. As they walked, two rather large Pure shells filled the air by Beckett's side, which he seemed to be tinkering with. Less than thirty seconds later, another encounter. Three Level 5 Gelids and two Level 5 Icelings, which instantly forced them both to focus.

It was their first all-Level 5 encounter, and their first multi-Gelid encounter. Alex's eyes narrowed; it felt like the deeper in they were, the more the weaker links of the rift were falling away. Slimes and Level 4's increasingly seemed a rarity. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Alex's thinking on the Gelids was, they had one genuinely dangerous Skill, but it took a while to get off, which meant at the start of a fight, they were largely reliant on other rift creatures for distraction. Alex and Beckett pretty much laser-targeted the Gelids from the start. Which went decently well, except for when the two Icelings let out two piercing screeches—a Skill, Alex knew, since it was like his entire equilibrium was tilted for a split-second.

It felt like the sounds were driving spikes into his ears, piercing into his skull, and then beyond, like they were piercing his mind itself, maybe his consciousness? The sensation was incredibly strange, and he knew instinctively this was a soul attack. The first soul attack he'd taken. It wasn't particularly damaging, but it did successfully derail a flight of spears and lances; the two of them cringed, and that split-second loss of concentration was all it took.

Alex did still get up two instinctive Mana Shields, CRACK! -ing and dazing the Icelings. Beckett took the chance to strike them with a few forking lightning projectiles. The fight finished somewhat messily; the two of them managed to kill the Icelings, and then two Gelids, after five more flights of lances, spears and projectiles. In this time the final Gelid did get a single ice-diamond rain off. An ice-diamond rain which was largely blocked by Mana Shields.

Beckett braced well, and took his single ice-diamond fine. Two flew at Alex, past his shattered Mana Shields, which he saw all the way. The first, he tilted his body, and let fly past his head; it struck the already icy ground behind him, and shattered into yet more ice. The second was an idea, and pure instinct. His arm went up, as he focused on the ice-diamond, and— PING! He felt the ice-diamond strike his bracer; or more accurately, contact the bracer. Its direction and angle altered, but it didn't explode.

It skidded away, crashing a dozen yards past the first ice-diamond. The final Gelid, spent, was quickly crushed after that. They collected an ice core off an Iceling.

"Wait," said Beckett.

"Was that your first time trying deflect in a fight?"

"I can't believe that thing didn't explode," said Alex; he felt as bewildered as Beckett. He glanced down at his bracer, still flickering with Force mana. He'd fully expected it'd take a few tries before he actually managed to deflect anything.

"I mean, you've deflected things before," Beckett said.

"Like with the wolves?"

"It's different applying Force to mana," said Alex. Except, even as he was saying it he realized he had exercised Force on mana before, with his Mana Spears. An ice-diamond was also a hard mana construct.

"It feels flukey," said Alex, a bit uncertain.

"Who knows?" said Beckett.

"Maybe you're just that guy." By this time, there were less than thirty minutes left.

"Those Icelings were fast," said Beckett as he melted the ice on his armor with a flame, wincing.

"I feel like it wasn't just the Level? The Gelid for sure got the ice-diamonds off a few seconds faster than it should've."

"I think the Icelings draw on environmental mana," said Alex.

"The Gelid definitely did, the ice's dense as hell right now." A second.

"Feels like—if the Slimes were the easy bit, training wheels are starting to come off," Alex added.

"I mean maybe, but I feel like we're still..." Beckett's voice trailed off." Shit, that's a lot." Another flock was screeching through the trees, this time four Icelings, two Gelids, all Level 5.

"Think cycling Pure helps with the screeches," was all Alex said; he noticed it seemed to take Beckett a few seconds longer to recover from the soul attack, and Beckett gave a quick, curt nod. Three minutes later, Beckett planted his spear into the ice, gasping, and Alex staggered, few lines of sweat on his face; the sweat on his body had frozen over.

"Fuck." Alex looked at his bracer with a grin. His success rate with deflecting ice-diamonds had decreased to 1 in 4.

"I am not, in fact, just that guy," he said to Beckett.

"Ah. It did look really good the first time."

"I mean, I saw that one all the way, and had 100% of my focus on it," said Alex; it felt a little clearer to him now, on reflection.

"And was probably way overpowering the bracer, which helped. And there's the luck bit, I was really precise on the timing."

"I guess you'll want to stick to Shields for anything serious," said Beckett." Wow, adding more Icelings changed a lot. I mean—if something slips through, it's always worth giving it a try?"

"Yeah," said Alex.

"I also did just get a ping."

"I Leveled," said Beckett cheerfully.

"You?"

"Pure Mana Manipulation," said Alex. Which he kind of figured—he'd felt his Mana constructs begin responding to his will slightly better mid-fight, the slight ability increase with Pure that indicated a Skill Level. Shatter resistance can't be far off either? And the next Class Level, actually. The essence in his soul had decreased a fair bit. Another few fights like that, and he was certain he'd get there.

"I want that Fire level bad, man," said Beckett, and Alex recognized the look in his eyes.

"What's with the big shells?" said Alex. He noticed Beckett was refining them wider and wider.

"If we're going to come up with any final weapons before we get to the boss, now's the time, right?" said Beckett.

"I have this vision."

"Big ass firebomb?"

"Big ass lightning firebomb." Beckett grinned; his grin was relatively innocuous, by itself, except for the context.

"Lightning and fire's supposed to work well together, right? Before you say anything, I get it, priority number one's getting the lightning and the fire to play nice. But I believe in the vision."

"Go ahead," said Alex, a bit amused; he'd also decided to take a few steps to the left. They kept walking; some of the icicles on nearby branches were getting massive, a few almost five feet long.

"Why not try the Force body-enhancement thing?" said Beckett as he turned his misshapen crystal of a lance-shell.

"You're getting along with Force Sinks."

"I will, a bit," said Alex.

"I just—one sec." He and Beckett were derailed by an encounter. A few minutes later—"There's not that much time," gasped Alex.

"Think I'll try, though."

"I get that," said Beckett; he drank out of a canteen.

"We have to be getting close, right? God, it'll be nice to take a breather. We're at—twenty minutes 'till time." Alex was feeling a little fresher; his Pure cycling was also given a slight boost after the latest Pure Skill level. But he'd also need to recover a bit, mentally and mana-wise. When he said as much Beckett tossed him a mana potion, which he'd duly accepted and drank.

"Okay, let's finish this bit up," said Alex after; his soul was swelling with mana. It'd probably be back to full in thirty seconds or less. By this, he wasn't just talking about the last stretch of the rift—he was also talking about that final shatter resistance level. As well as whatever last few aspects of his magic he wanted to explore. Final weapons, as Beckett called them. What had to be less than a half-mile away, he could see the lair, almost; could see the halo of ice-mana concentrating, high above.

Are we really doing this? Suppose we are. He felt his heart pounding hard as they went. When Beckett had said fighting the final boss, in his mind it'd felt like an aspirational goal. And now, they were almost there.